Undergraduate Economics Education in English and Welsh Universities

A professor experienced in both the United Kingdom's and the United States' educational systems, the author describes and compares the two countries' economic education objectives and practices.     

The meanings of informal and second-hand retail channels: some evidence from Leicester

Conventionally, informal and/or second-hand channels were viewed as being used by disadvantaged consumers out of economic necessity. With the cultural turn in retail and consumer research however, a new reading has emerged that views participation in such channels to be broader and more a matter of choice. To evaluate these contrasting perspectives, data collected from 120 face-to-face interviews in the English city of Leicester is reported in this article. Finding that the agency-orientated view of such retail channels is valid in affluent populations - but economic necessity remains the principal motive amongst lower-income populations - this paper reconciles these contrasting readings of economic and cultural theorists through a both/and approach sensitive to the varying meanings of such practices in different populations.     

Explaining the do-it-yourself (DIY) retail market in a developing country: preliminary lessons from India

Until now, studies of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) market have been confined to advanced market economies, with developing countries ignored. This article begins to bridge this gap. Analysing a survey of 500 households in India, a developing country characterized by cheap and surplus labour, and a different cultural milieu, this article investigates whether it is possible to distinguish DIY consumers in the same manner as in Western nations as ‘reluctant’ or ‘willing’ DIYers. The analysis finds that in India, DIY consumers can be concurrently both willing DIYers doing so for pleasure (the choice model) or seeking self-identity from the end-product (post-modern theory) and at the same time reluctant DIYers doing so out of economic necessity reasons (economic determinism model) or due to the lack of appropriately skilled labour (a market failure model). Results also reflected cultural connotations to the respondent perceptions. The multiplicity of reasons, in consequence, shows that no one theorisation of DIY consumers' motives is universally relevant but all theories are sometimes valid. As such, a new typology of DIY consumers' motives has been inductively generated which is theoretically integrative. The results conclude on the need to move beyond using one theory and treating the others as rival competing theories, for a comprehensive explanation of DIY.     

Beyond necessity versus opportunity entrepreneurship: some lessons from English deprived urban neighbourhoods

When discussing the motivations of entrepreneurs, it has become commonplace to represent them dichotomously as either necessity or opportunity driven. This paper evaluates critically this dualistic depiction of entrepreneurs’ motives through an examination of the rationales of entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs living in a deprived urban neighbourhood of an English city, a group of entrepreneurs who have been conventionally depicted as largely driven by necessity into entrepreneurship in the absence of alternative means of livelihood. Reporting the results of a face-to-face questionnaire conducted in 2008 with 459 respondents and a further 18 follow-up in-depth interviews, the finding is that forcing individual entrepreneurs’ motives into one or other of these categories grossly over-simplifies their rationales which in lived practice are not only a mixture of both opportunity and necessity but also temporally fluid shifting most often from more necessity- to more opportunity-oriented rationales. The outcome is to reveal that the opportunity versus necessity dichotomy, which uses the perceptions of an entrepreneur’s originating condition as the defining feature of their motivations, is a misleading way of categorising types of entrepreneurship not only because motivations change over time but also because entrepreneurs are frequently driven by both necessity as well as opportunity factors. The result is a call to move beyond the conventional either/or depiction of opportunity versus necessity entrepreneurship and towards a richer, more nuanced and dynamic appreciation of entrepreneurs’ motivations.     

Addressing shortcomings in the Household Responsibility System: Empirical analysis of the Two-Farmland System in Shandong Province

Despite apparent overwhelming benefits, implementation of the Household Responsibility System (HRS) in China contained a number of flaws. The Two-Farmland System (TFS), which originated in Pingdu City in Shandong Province, sought to address the twin problems of land fragmentation and economies of size. A stochastic frontier production function analysis that isolates the impacts of land allocation reforms suggests that the TFS increased efficiency by around 7%. This article highlights the need for empirical analysis to assess objectively the merits or otherwise of particular reforms.     

New development: Estate agents’ perspectives of anti-money laundering compliance—four key issues in the UK property market

ABSTRACT

In recent years, money laundering in the property market has come under scrutiny across the world, attracting significant attention from governments, regulators, policy-makers, NGOs, academics and others. However, there remain gaps in knowledge, which is particularly important given practical difficulties in the implementation of anti-money laundering (AML) obligations. This article offers new insights into such implementation in the context of the UK AML regime and the real estate sector. The authors analyse four important issues relating to the UK AML obligations: customer due diligence (CDD); reporting suspicion; training requirements; and letting (rental) agents.